Seen the film 3 times. For me such a film is a must, unlike Hollywood the Germans went to great lengths to ensure as much realism as possible. A former German U-Boot man I once knew said that the film had brought back memories, his main critisism was that it is almost impossible in a film to catch the mood swings from euphoria to oh shit it's the end, his expression was "scheiss Angst". Plus of course the pleasant smells that permeate the boat.

Das Boot is one of my favourite war films of all time. It's an absoloute classic. I was talking to an ex submariner down the club about it and he said it is a realistic film. Mind you, i like watching hun films. Never thought i would be cheering for jerry, the damned swine.

The boat the film is based on sank the tanker my uncle was the 1st officer on, the 'Clea'.
Had he returned home he would have obtained his masters ticket.
Years ago I decided to research what had happened to him as none of the family were aware of the exact details.
The 'Clea' had broken down and wandered away from the convoy off Iceland, which is where it was sunk. The 'Clea' had started her homeward voyage in Curacao then via Miami and Bermuda.
I was lead to understood that the tanker sinking 'featured' in the film was in fact the 'Clea'.
Sadly, neither my uncles parents, nor his siblings were aware of the actual details of his fate, and they had all died before the discovery was made.
His name is on the memorial on Tower Hill.

that and the Afghan war film from Russia "9th company" are my favourite war films except for every Japanese Samurai film I can get.I like them and have just ordered another 5 DVD's from Amazon.
Something about the way they make the massive battles and individual combat scenes that makes it good viewing for me,but I do watch Das Boot a lot.